Toyota: Electric Cars 'Too Expensive' For Mainstream Consumers

The Frankfurt Motor Show has seen the debut of numerous electric cars, but Toyota execs went out of their way to critique electric cars as too pricey for the average buyer.

Toyota has long been associated with the green car movement with its fleet of popular hybrids but has been less active than others on the electric car front. This hesitance is apparently based on tests the company undertook before determining the technology was too expensive to replace their brand of hybrids.

"Electric vehicles of today are less costly than in 1990s, but if you compare them with the other vehicles out there they are still too expensive," Toyota Exec VP Takeshi Uchiyamada told a crowd at the Frankfurt Motor Show. "Unless there is a very big breakthrough in battery costs I don't think electric vehicles can take a large market share."

It remains to be seen if this is experience talking or Toyota is just being protective of the technological advantage it currently has, but it's worth noting they brought an electric car to the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year.

[Forbes]